1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management system for managing maintenance information of image forming apparatuses such as copying machinees, printers, more particularly, to a management system for managing maintenance information of image forming apparatuses wherein a host computer is connected through a communication line to the image forming apparatuses.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there has been put into practice a remote diagnosis system having a polling communication system for collecting maintenance data of copying machines by transmitting them from respective terminal units of copying machines to a central host computer through telephone lines. In the remote diagnosis system, each terminal unit of a copying machine transmits the maintenance data to the central host computer when the number of copies becomes a predetermined value.
In order to construct the conventional remote diagnosis system, it is necessary to extend the telephone lines only for this remote diagnosis system. Therefore, the construction cost thereof is expensive. Further, there is such a problem that the efficiency of utilization of the telephone lines is relatively low since each terminal unit of the copying machine transmits the maintenance data to the central host computer when the number of copies becomes the predetermined value.
Furthermore, in the conventional remote diagnosis system of this type, each terminal unit cannot call the host computer. Therefore, for example, each terminal unit cannot inform the host computer of a maintenance timing which is judged based on the number of times of troubles caused in the copying machine, the operation time thereof, and an accumulated number of copies thereof.